


oh no

by arckook



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Comedy, F/M, Fluff, basically about unfortunate snaps lol, can u believe i wrote something thats not depressing, i love jaehyun ok
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-25
Updated: 2017-08-06
Packaged: 2018-12-06 07:37:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 15,138
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11595963
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/arckook/pseuds/arckook
Summary: You're not one for having entire conversations on snapchat. It's just not something you do a lot– partially because your best friends have all decided the best way to make sure nobody ever steps out of line through messaging is by always having screenshots available.You're not one for having entire conversations on snapchat, but your friend Johnny has just gone on a rant about how he doesn't understand the functions of the world and why we are alive at all, and because you're pretty sure he's drunk, you feel compelled to comfort him in some way.oryou accidentally snapchat the gorgeous Jung Jaehyun instead of your drunk friend





	1. an unfortunate occurence

You're not one for having entire conversations on snapchat. It's just not something you do a lot– partially because your best friends have all decided the best way to make sure nobody ever steps out of line through messaging is by always having screenshots available. You were eternally ready to pull out those receipts if an ex-boyfriend or shady bitch tried any one of you.  
Partially because you were the type of person to click on a name and send your snaps without really checking to make sure they were going to the right person. Most of the people you snapped were on your best friends list, but you were very afraid of sending the wrong thing to the wrong person. Some out of context snapchats were just unexplainable, and you didn't want to risk it. 

You're not one for having entire conversations on snapchat, but your friend Johnny has just gone on a rant about how he doesn't understand the functions of the world and why we are alive at all, and because you're pretty sure he's drunk, you feel compelled to comfort him in some way. 

_idk man but does it really matter? we just need to live our lives and have goals and shit dw about it_

You send, aided by a black screen that you'd made by covering the camera with your fingers. Sure, it was two am, but that didn't mean your lights were off. 

Surely enough, a little red box pops up next to Johnny's name not even a minute after you send your reply.

_thus is not a fuckin joke Y/N im havign a major crisis and ineed u to be 100 percent seriueous right now_

Yep, he's definitely drunk. It's not the poor spelling that gives it away (you often do that too when you're too lazy to correct your mistakes and spellcheck can't save you) but rather the picture of Ten on the bathroom floor, seemingly dying of laughter. You try to mentally explain to yourself how they ended up beside the toilet, one of them laughing hysterically and the other having a breakdown. It doesn't work.

_johnny, i need you to go drink some water_

You chuckle to yourself as you imagine his shocked face upon seeing your simple response, double clicking the home button on your phone to go over to Twitter for a while.  
A few minutes later, as if Johnny actually did heed your advice, you finally get a notification telling you he's replied.

_please expliane hoe that was supposed to hepl because it didndt_

And shortly after:

_i just dot get it. how the fucketg am i supposed to go to sleppe knwoign im just a brian what the fuckckkckckckc_

You sigh. Fine. You would actually put some effort in trying to make your friend feel better. He did promise he would bring you Starbucks at school on Monday since he wasn't busy. Having friends in college did have its perks.

_okay. listen up. yes, you are a brain. but that wont change that you still have emotions and experiences and memories and abilities and all that shit. one of your abilities is to drink water, which should help with the fact that youre drunk as fuck, and another is slseping, which will also help. i suggest you do both, gnite_

You type out what's practically a self-help novel in it's simplest terms, hoping that will satisfy him until the morning when you can go over before work to make sure him and Ten are not dead. 

"Shit," you whisper to yourself as you accidentally hit the home button, quickly reentering snapchat and scrolling down the list to find Johnny's name. You haven't talked to him over this app in months, meaning you have to go all the way to the J's in the friends list to send the snap.  
You hop on over to Twitter again, scrolling through news and your idiot friends' stupid jokes (that you often laugh at, because while stupid they are pretty funny). 

It feels like way too long has passed before you get another notification from Johnny, but you just assume that he was really thinking deeply about what you'd said before he decided to thank you.

_HOW CAN U OPNE THAT SNAP ADN D NOT EVEN REPLY_

...What?

You stare at the words on the screen, another picture of redfaced Ten now inside the bathtub, stare at it until the ten seconds run out and you are met with a view of the wall in front of you through the camera. 

No.  
No.  
Fuck, no.

You swipe over to the chat screen, praying to every God you know of that you didn't just do what you think you might have. _Please let Johnny have just not read what I sent because he's so drunk please please please–_

But instead, all you see is an empty box by Johnny's name, meaning you opened his last snap, and a filled in arrow by the word Jaehyun. 

No. Fucking. Way.

You think you might pass out right then and there.

Okay, it's not like what you sent is incriminating, or something. It's not a picture of you doing crack, it's not a racy lingerie pic, it's not screenshots of the math final from last semester you cheated on.

But it's weird, strange, uncalled for, not something Jung Jaehyun asked for.  
Most importantly, it's going to Jung Jaehyun. Who you sit next to in History, who was your partner for a project the first week of school and that's how you somehow have his snapchat, who is really goddamn cute and you lowkey have a crush on but you'd never admit that to anyone–

You remind yourself to breathe. Close your eyes for a moment, just think. Jaehyun is pretty normal, from what you've gathered, so he's probably asleep at two in the morning. Meaning he won't open the snap until he wakes up in minimum four hours (you're guessing), giving you time to figure out how to explain that without giving away that you are indeed friends with Johnny Seo, yes, that Johnny, and that yes, he was drunk last night and you were trying to explain that being a brain is okay and that sleep is beneficial. 

You open your eyes, and you think that your heart has maybe just stopped.

The filled in arrow beside Jaehyun's name is no longer filled in, or even there. It's now a red box.  
He opened it.  
And he fucking sent something back.

Yeah, you would say you're pretty ready to die.

The red box by Johnny's name fills up again, and you tap on that one quickly, hoping whatever he says distracts you momentarily from your crisis. 

_wht the hell is goign on. reply to me yul rude owman._

Your hands are shaking as you cover the camera and then type out a response.

_listen johnny something terrible just happened to me so ill talk to u in the morning feel better and tell ten to have a good and safe night bye bye_

You don't bother waiting for his reply, instead pressing the home button and opening your iMessage app. You tap on ~superhoesss~ (the groupchat) and pray that at least one of your friends is awake.

_guys help please this is an emergency_

You exit out, going on Twitter again to scope out if any of them have posted in the last ten minutes so you can force them to reply by exposing that you know they're awake and just ignoring you.  
But it doesn't happen, and as ten minutes go by without anyone replying to your text, you lose hope. 

"What's the worst that can happen?" you mutter, trying to resolve yourself to just deal with this situation alone. He could think you're leading some kind of insane second life and never speak to you again.  
No. Shutup. He won't think that.  
Hopefully.  
God, hopefully he doesn't think that.

You steel yourself as you open up snapchat once again and swipe quickly, finger hovering just slightly over the red box by Jaehyun that you're painfully afraid to tap on. But he knows you're awake– that kind of thing isn't sent when one is half asleep or about to go to sleep themselves. He'll know you're ignoring him if you don't reply. And that might be even weirder than trying to explain it. 

Okay. Here you go.

_I'm just gonna assume this was sent to the wrong person, haha, but is your friend okay? Sounds like she's having a rough time_

The timer runs out, and you're staring, once again.  
You had sent that snap with a black screen, but Jaehyun, who is perfect and looks perfect at all times, basically, had not done the same. His message was framed by half his face, eyes squinty and his lips turned up in an amused smile. Yeah, your heart is definitely beating faster now.

Well, he knows that you had opened it now. His face hadn't been all shadowy, which means that he's pretty wide awake, so you doubt he had just replied to your snap and gone to sleep.  
God, this is so much conspiracy. You really need your friends' counsel on this.  
If he knows that you opened it, then he knows you're up, and so now it becomes weird if you don't respond.

So you take another picture with your fingers over the camera so that the screen is black, and respond.

_omg im so sorry, it was totally sent to the wrong person, but my friend is fine lol_

The phrasing is better if you send two, so you send that one and then quickly the second part.

_he was just struggling a little but its all good now_

You don't expect them to be read so fast, but it's not even two minutes later when you have a reply from Jaehyun.

It's not a picture of his face this time, but rather what seems like a wall.

_It's okay, don't worry haha_

You're almost disappointed that the reply is so short, but remind yourself that this 'conversation' is just happening because you fucked up in sending your snap to the right person, and that he has no obligation to keep talking to you. 

Until a second snap loads.

_How was he struggling?_

Fuck.  
This was the "Yeah, I'm friends with _that_ Johnny, yup, the one who dressed up as various representations of the school mascot every day before Homecoming two years ago. Yup, the one who became a legend for his terrible jokes. Yeah, the one who did Johnny's Fashion Evaluation for the morning announcements his entire senior year. Yup. Johnny Seo. He brings me starbucks." moment that you dreaded anytime Johnny came up in conversation with anyone from school.  
Or even outside of school, he's practically a local hero.

_um hes just goin through a bit of an existential crisis aha_

Let's just skate past saying who exactly the struggling friend is until its specifically asked for. 

_That's relatable_

_And I assume you were trying to help him through that? Lol_

Why was he being so... normal?  
Okay, yeah, you kind of have a crush on Jaehyun, but you don't really talk outside of class. You have a lot of fun and good times together while you're there, but you haven't texted him in months– not since you finished the project. And you can't remember ever snapchatting him, despite the fact that you've watched his story occasionally, and he watched yours sometimes too.  
So although you think he's really cute, and you're definitely not complaining that he's making an effort to continue this conversation, you don't really get it.  
But whatever.

_yeah, he usually needs my assistance to get him through stuff like that haha_

_So existential crises are common with this guy? Tell him good luck from me_

_nah, not really, he was just a bit drunk lol_

Ah, that was risky. Actually, that was stupid, and you shouldn't have even sent that. Now Jaehyun was going to question why your friends are getting drunk and snapchatting you about their issues. Sure, a lot of teenagers drink and go to parties and shit, but you know that Jaehyun doesn't do that kind of stuff, and you're sure he hadn't seen you as someone who would, or even be friends with people who do, before right now.  
Great.

_Drunk??? Tell your friend underage drinking is bad_

This time, the picture accompanying his question is a selfie of him scrunching up his face in a disapproving pout, and it's so cute you almost squeal to yourself. But you don't. Because that's embarassing.

_he just turned 21 like a month ago dw lol_

Which is a lie, because Johnny just turned 20, not 21, but you have to try to salvage this somehow.  
You wait a couple minutes, but Jaehyun doesn't reply, despite the fact that you can see that he's opened your last snap. After ten minutes, you decide he must've fallen asleep or something to try to make yourself feel better that he didn't respond. 

You lean over and click the light switch so that your room is plunged in darkness, and quickly set your alarm before tossing your phone on the nightstand and rolling over, digging your face into the pillow.  
You really hope Jaehyun doesn't look down on you now.  
You like him too much for that.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hi, im highkey in love with jaehyun and started writing this so i have something to work on when im not inspired to write to the stars   
> this is so different from my usual style, so its a bit out there, but i kinda like it even if its cheesy and a bit cringe lol  
> anyway this should be wrapped up fairly quickly, as ive already written three chapters, but i thought id just post it on here since the jaehyun/reader tag is so empty cries  
> ty for reading!


	2. the joy of plotting

Somehow, you manage to wake up at seven thirty, when you planned to, so that you can drop by Johnny and Ten's place before heading to CVS for your shift.

But you wake up to forty-seven messages, forty-five of which are from the groupchat. Of the other two, one is from your coworker asking if you'll pick up her shift tomorrow, to which you roll your eyes but text back a sure, and the other from Ten, asking if you're coming over, to which you do the same. 

You read the other mass of texts as you get dressed in your work uniform, chuckling at the ridiculous theories your friends have made in the past hour or so. They all work like you, (aside from Yeri who only just turned sixteen) so you're assuming that's why they were all up early enough to talk about your request for help last night. You decide you'll explain on your lunch break. 

 

A sleepy looking, messy haired Ten opens the door when you knock. 

"Hello?" he asks, as though he isn't looking right at you.  
"How's Johnny?" you ask in response, stepping past him into the trashed apartment. It wasn't trashes because they got drunk last night. The apartment is just consistently trashes, unless their friend Taeyong drops by to clean up for them. 

"Wow," says Ten, following you as you meander through the house, looking for your friend. "No, 'how's Ten'?"  
"Nah," you say, finally locating Johnny. He's lying completely inside the bathtub, a lone pillow under his head, his arms sprawled out and various empty bottles and cans strewn across the bathroom. "What the hell?"  
"I'd try to explain, but I don't even know what happened last night." 

You sigh, kneeling to shake Johnny awake. "Get up, dumbass. God, you're such a nightmare when you're drunk, you know?"  
"Shutup," he murmurs, words still slurred. "Too early for this shit,"  
"You know what it's not too early for?" you ask, waiting for him to nod. He does. "It's not too early for me to kick your ass."  
"I'll kick your ass," Johnny mutters, clearly still half asleep as he flips over onto his stomach. "Square up,"

You stand, turning to Ten, who's just leaning in the doorway looking like he has half a mind to join Johnny in the tub and go back to sleep himself.  
"I brought some ibuprofen, these are prescription ones from when my sister broke her arm so they're pretty strong. Make sure he drinks a lot of water, and keep him indoors until he can text me a full paragraph without mistakes." You dig around in your bag for the bottle of pills, unscrewing the lid to shake out a few. No way were you giving up the whole bottle of these babies.  
Ten takes the pills and nods, understanding your instructions.  
"And don't go back to sleep." you warn, stepping over the trash on the bathroom floor as you begin to make your way out.  
"I'll try," he calls after you. You shake your head at the brazen response, but leave regardless.

 

Of the things you are and aren't expecting, the two things that you have experienced while on your lunch break are high on both lists. One each, to clarify.

Of the things that you are expecting, Joy calling you and demanding to know what in God's name you were talking about when you texted in the groupchat for help at two thirty in the morning is quite high. You're also expecting that Rosie, Lisa, and Yeri would all join the call.  
You sit in the break room at work, munching on a clif bar and sipping your jamba juice that Seungkwan brought for you as you explain to your friends why you sent that text, and what occured after.

"So you're telling us that Jaehyun talked to you? Like actually thoroughly had a conversation with you?" Rose exclaims, making you wince as you bring the phone a bit away from your ear.  
"Well, it was kind of brief, but yeah," you say, casually.  
"Screenshots?" Yeri asks.  
"I told you, it was on snapchat, there are no screenshots!" you scold her for not remembering the details of your story.  
"Did he seem flirtatious? Like he was talking to you because he wanted to get closer with you?" Joy prods, clearly interesting in the deeper meaning of your interaction with your crush.  
You shrug although they can't see it. "I basically said everything he said to me."  
"Did he send any selfies or just black backgrounds?" Lisa asks.  
"Um, he did send two," you say, and all four other girls gasp. "What?"  
"Describe them," Joy says sternly.  
"Yeah, do that," You can hear the nod in Rosie's tone.  
"The first one was the first time he replied, when he was like 'I'll assume that was for someone else'– his expression was just like smiley, I don't know, and then the second one was when he said to tell my friend underage drinking was bad. He had this really cute pout, holy shit, it was so cute I'm telling you guys–"  
"He's flirting," Joy announces.  
"Totally," Lisa says, and you can hear the nod in her voice too.  
"The pout face really confirms it," Yeri says thoughtfully.  
"How do you guys even know?" you roll your eyes. Yeah, you'd love to believe that Jaehyun replied to your snap so he could flirt with you, but why would he do that and then stop replying? Clearly, he just wanted to know why you sent what you did, and then was done as soon as you mentioned having a drunk friend.

"Y/N," says Rose, snapping you out of your trance. "Believe us. This means he likes you. And that means you need to get on it and start flirting back."  
You sigh. "Okay, well, the conversation ended, so how am I supposed to do that?"  
"Easy," says Joy. "You sit together in History. So on Monday brush hands by 'accident', or mention how nice his hair looks, or something. Just make sure he knows you're interested."  
"That's stupid and embarassing," you snap, feeling yourself turn red at just the thought of openly flirting with Jaehyun in class like that. You were definitely not the type to do that with no shame.  
"Come on," Joy whines. "Y/N, you've liked him for over half a year, this is your chance!"  
"Yeah, you need to just do it," Yeri agrees.  
"I'm in that class too, you can't avoid it," Rosie warns. "I'll make sure something happens between the two of you."  
"I swear to God, Roseanne, if you–"  
"Hey, my manager's coming over here, probably took a longer break than I was supposed to, talk to you all later!" Joy interrupts, immediately hanging up.  
"Yeah, my mom's calling, see you, good luck Y/N!" Lisa pipes.  
"I'm not kidding, Y/N!" Rose sing-songs before hanging up.

"Don't worry," Yeri chimes as soon as the other girls are all disconnected. "I'm sure it'll all work out!"  
"Oh, you innocent and sweet sophomore who doesn't understand the cruelty of the world," you sigh. "Bye Yeri."  
"Bye," she says, chuckling, before she too hangs up.

 

The second thing is for Jung Jaehyun to send you a snap.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> part 2 :)  
> honestly this feels like some kind of 90s teen romance movie, but im rollin with that vibe  
> please enjoy!


	3. a guy named taeyong

You get off work at nine pm, and that's your nearest opportunity to open the snapchat Jaehyun sent you. You have others you need to open too, blue boxes you're assuming are commentary on your eventful story containing a picture of CVS with the caption: ready to kms at work as per usual!!! But those are less important. Because Jung Jaehyun actually snapchatted you. 

You're out the doors of CVS the second the clock turns to nine, calling out a bye to Seungkwan and your manager before you practically sprint to your car, jumping in and turning the engine on for some heating as you pull your phone out from your bag.

You ignore the text, twitter, and instagram notications, reminders you set to finish that essay for English, missed call from your mom who probably forgot you had work and wanted to know where you are.  
You open snapchat and swipe to the chat page, practically shaking with a mix of nerves and excitement to see what Jaehyun sent you.

_Your friend feeling any better this morning?_

You break out into a fit of nervous giggles after reading the caption. Or maybe they were caused by yet another selfie– his light brown hair sweeping flawlessly over his forehead, eyebrows raised with a slightly questioning smile. Jesus, how can someone be that handsome? It doesn't make sense. 

Do you take the risk of sending a selfie back? Is it weird that he's sent you three and youve only replied with black screens? It's just past nine right now, so a black screen would probably make sense given that it's dark out, but is that unfriendly?

You consult the group chat, and Joy tells you that you should obviously send a very flattering selfie. Lisa says to show only a part of your face so it doesn't look like you're trying that hard. That seems smart.

You retake the picture seven times before it looks appropriately careless, captioning it with a response.

_haha he was passed out in his bathtub this morning but im sure hes alright_

You send it before you can have second thoughts about any part of the picture, and finally pull out of the CVS parking lot to get home.

 

You don't check your phone while you're driving, but you do have bluetooth connected to it, so when Johnny calls you as you're about to turn into your neighborhood, you answer.

"What?" you say aloud, reaching over and clicking up the volume on your phone so you can hear him through the car speakers.  
"You should sleep over at my place tonight," he says simply, sounding significantly better than he did this morning.  
"Why?" you ask, rolling your eyes.  
"...Because why not?"  
You sigh deeply. "Johnny, I have work tomorrow and I don't think my parents will want me to sleep over at a college guy's apartment. Regardless of if I've known him since I was twelve."  
"Hey, listen," Johnny says, his tone indicating that he's about to try to convince you. "Seulgi and Jisoo are coming over too, so you won't be the only girl, and Mark is coming so you won't be the only one in high school. It'll be fun, I promise!"

You pull into your driveway next to your mom's car, parking and grabbing your stuff quickly before you get out, pressing your phone to your ear so you can respond to your friend while you open your front door.  
"That does not mean my parents will be okay with it," you argue, stepping into your house and shutting the door behind you. "Hey little sister," you say to your younger sister, who is sitting on the couch playing some sort of video game.  
"Hey," she says back. "Mom and Dad went out."  
"Did I just hear Naeun say your parents are out of the house?" Johnny asks mischievously. "That means you can come!"  
"Come on, Y/N!" you hear Ten shout from faraway on Johnny's end of the phone call.  
You sigh. "Nobody's here to watch Naeun, I can't leave."  
"I'm thirteen, you don't need to 'watch' me," your sister snaps, death glaring at you from the couch. Eighth graders, man.  
"Everyone'll be here in like an hour, so get going if you're gonna come," Johnny says. 

You sigh, dropping your stuff on the counter and rolling your eyes. "Fine," you say, and you hear Ten cheering in the background.  
"Yes!" exclaims Johnny. "See you soon!"  
"See you," you reply, and hang up. "Tell mom I'm sleeping over at Rose's if she asks, kay?" you instruct Naeun, and she brazenly nods.

 

You forgot to see if Jaehyun ever replied to your snapchat.  
You realize this as you're sitting in a circle waiting for the bottle you've just spun to land on someone. Yeah, you can't believe college kids play spin the bottle on weekends either, but here you are surrounded by them, doing just that. 

You probably should've understood that when Jisoo, Seulgi, and Mark were all mentioned to be 'sleeping over' as well, that Johnny was actually just having a small party, and that things were not going to be simple and sweet. But you hadn't. So that's why you're playing spin the bottle, hoping it doesn't land on Mark (he is like sixteen and you're pretty sure Yeri is into him), Johnny (you have kissed him before and it was regrettable), or Taeyong (because he's a scarily gorgeous man and you are not prepared for that emotionally). 

You haven't checked to see if Jaehyun replied to your snapchat. But you guess that doesn't really matter, because the bottle lands on Taeyong, and you think you might pass out as he leans out from behind Seulgi who's sitting to your left and sends you a somewhat apologetic smile.  
"Record this, she's gonna flip her shit," you hear Johnny say, laughing, and someone picks up your phone that you'd unlocked a minute prior when you realized you needed to see if Jaehyun replied. 

Taeyong scoots over, his dark eyes seeming much more friendly than they had in the past when you'd briefly seen him over here, and he leans in closer to you so that nobody else can hear you talk.  
"You can back out if you want," he offers, shrugging lightheartedly. You glance over at Ten and Johnny who are cracking up at your obvious internal struggle, and then at Seulgi who gives you an encouraging smile, and you shrug back.  
"Nah, let's just do it so they don't nag," you say, and Taeyong nods.

He reaches up and places one hand on the back of your head, thumb in front of your ear, and tugs you a little closer. You shut your eyes because he's just really, really handsome, and even if you have no feelings for Taeyong at all, your heart is racing at his proximity. You hear the sound of multiple iPhone cameras start recording, and then his lips are pressing onto yours, his fingers wrapping slightly into your hair to keep you from leaning too far back. It's short, just that few seconds, before he's pulling away and you immediately drop your face into your knees, groaning in embarassment as you hear the others laugh. 

"That was too good," Johnny laughs through his words. You lift your head up and Yuta, the guy who's sitting to your right, hands you your phone back, off and locked this time. Seulgi to your other side laughs (a pretty smile and sound) and rubs your back comfortingly.  
"You and Taeyong look good together," she comments, still smiling almost in a motherly way at you.  
You shake your head adamantly, knowing you're probably blushing. "I don't know about that," you say, waving the statement off.  
Seulgi raises her eyebrows. "Really," she says, tilting her head ever so slightly to her left to indicate to Taeyong, who'd returned to his place over there. "I think he has a soft spot for you. He seemed glad when Johnny said you were coming." 

You find that hard to believe, but just nod, giving in before Seulgi looks away, it being her turn to spin. You unlock your phone, returning to the task of checking snapchat. Sure enough, when you swipe to the right, there is a filled box by Jaehyun's name, which you promptly tap on.

It's another selfie, where he is looking perfect as usual.

_Your friend leads an interesting life._

But the box is still full when the timer runs out, so you open the second snap too.

_How about you? Feeling okay?_

He asked about you? He actually asked about you? But why? You hadn't been the one drunk and wondering about the functions of life. You should've actually gone to Rose's so she could have helped you figure this out.

You snap another 'careless' looking selfie, trying to avoid showing too much of your location in the background.

_im ok i guess, how are you jjh?_

That's what you call him in class when you say hi to each other every day. Your name for him is JJH, and he calls you sunshine, so he can say "Mornin', Sunshine!" in a terribly cringey southern accent every morning. 

Not a full minute passes before he replies, and you completely tune out what's going on around you to focus on the conversation at hand.

A picture of the wall, and a caption.

_Sure you're okay? You looked pretty stressed on your story, lol_

What?  
What does he mean by that? All you have on your story is the picture of CVS. 

Nontheless, you swipe over twice on the app to tap on your story, watching the picture from this morning last a few seconds, and then–  
And then the video of Taeyong kissing you playing. 

Yuta (who you're guessing took this since he's the one who handed you your phone back) must've started it a bit late, because Taeyong is only close to you for a half a second before he pulls away from the kiss and sits back on his heels, smiling shyly as you duck your head down and groan, everyone else laughing heartily in the background before the video ends. 

Jaehyun saw you kissing someone else.  
He saw, and he wasn't upset, which means he doesn't care, but either way, he saw you kssing someone else–  
It's the only thing you're thinking, and suddenly the party feels too loud and your head is hurting and your heart is tugging in an aching way, and you have to get out. 

You stand abruptly, muttering an 'I have to go' to Seulgi before you pivot and stride towards the door, ignoring Johnny calling after you to ask where you're going. You feel your eyes watering, and hastily swipe at them with the back of your hand as you open the front door and shut it behind you, sitting on the carpeted ground to it as you breathe in deep.  
You rest your face in your knees once again, trying to keep yourself from crying so you don't embarass yourself if you decide to go back in there. It feels like a while has passed when you hear the door click open and someone settle down next to you.

"I dont feel like listening to your bullshit, Johnny," you mutter, knowing your friend had to have come out here to try and tease you into a better mood.  
"It's me, actually,"  
You snap your head up to meet Taeyong's dark eyes. He chuckles lightly, turning his face away and resting the back of his head on the wall, letting his eyes shut.  
"Oh," you say, cringing at yourself. "Sorry."  
"You alright?" he asks.  
"You know we're not friends, right?" you say, then bite your lip as you realize how harsh that sounds.  
Taeyong chuckles again. "Yeah, sorry," he says. "I kind of like you, though, so I just wanted to make sure you're okay." 

The fact that he phrased it that way bothers you because its just the same way Jaehyun asked you if you were okay. You try to remind yourself that it's not his fault, though.

"I'm okay," you say simply, sighing.  
"Good," Taeyong replies. "Want to come back in, or should I let Johnny know you went home?"  
You think on it. If you go home, you'll just stress about whether or not to reply to Jaehyun, probably end up crying, call one of your friends and try hopelessly to explain why you're upset.  
If you stay here, you can force yourself to have fun and forget about the issue currently at hand. And maybe distract yourself with how handsome Taeyong is. You like Seulgi, too. 

You get to your feet, extending a hand to Taeyong as he opens his eyes.  
"Come on then," you say, and he smiles.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> part three! im thinking this'll be 6 chapters :)


	4. major relationship issues

You're the first one to wake up of all the people that slept over at Johnny's last night. Not everyone who was at the party did– Taeyong went home because he needed to take care of his cat, Mark's parents didn't want him staying over at a college kid's house, and a few other people that you really hadn't paid attention to had also left.  
You had slept in Johnny's queen sized bed along with Seulgi and Jennie, the other girl besides Jisoo who came. Who knows where Johnny himself had slept. Probably the bathtub. 

Either way, you're the first one up, and as such, the first one out the door.  
You check your phone as you leave, finding various missed calls from your mom (as per usual when you went anywhere), a ton of snapchat notifications, and an endless stream of texts from the groupchat. Great. 

In fact, as you're getting into your car, a call from Rose comes through on your phone, and figuring you need to explain the video on your story (that you remembered to delete after about an hour), you answer.

"Where are you?" your friend asks blatantly.  
"Leaving Johnny's," you say, turning the key and connecting the call to bluetooth.  
"Come to Lisa's," Rosie says, and you know there will be no arguing. "We need to discuss Jung Jaehyun and your snapchat story from last night."  
"Okay," you say, halfheartedly. You know you'll have to face Jaehyun tomorrow anyway, so you might as well talk through the situation wih your friends.  
"See you soon," Rose says, and hangs up promptly. 

 

You pull up to Lisa's house, having called your mom on the way there and explained that you had slept over at Rose's ( _yes, I can send you a picture for proof_ ) and now the two of you were going to Lisa's because Rose's parents were having friends over and you didn't want to stick around for that. You don't like lying to your mom, or either of your parents, but you also don't want them to keep you from ever leaving the house again just because you occasionally hang out with your older friends. 

Lisa opens the door, and you can see that she immediately wants to laugh at your appearance, but is polite enough to keep it inside.  
"You look like a nutcase," she comments as you make your way up the stairs and to her room.  
"Yep," you respond, sighing. "I'm well aware."

Sprawled across Lisa's room in various positions are Rose, Yeri, and Joy. They all look up at you as you walk through the door, and sit up just after, looking ready to question you at once.

"You know that you officially made our plan to hook you up with Jaehyun tomorrow at least twenty times harder, right?" Joy says as soon as you settle onto Lisa's bed, slumping over since you're still extremely tired after only sleeping for a few hours.  
"I know," you mumble, the frustration you felt last night welling up in you again.  
"Did you check to see if he watched your story?" Yeri asks.  
You nod. "He even asked about it."  
"Really?" Rosie questions. "Out of nowhere?"

"No," you say. "He snapped me in the morning yesterday asking if Johnny was okay, and I said yes, but then I forgot to see if he replied. I checked after Taeyong kissed me, and he had said something like 'how are you then?', but way earlier, like in the morning, and I said I was alright, but then he replied again and said 'you looked pretty stressed on your story, lol'. So I was like what? Because I thought the only thing on my story was the picture of CVS. But apparently the guy next to me at the party put me and Taeyong kissing on my story, and Jaehyun saw it, and–" 

You hadn't realized you'd started crying, even if it was mostly sniffles, but when you feel Rose's familiar arms around you, lifting you up so you can cry into her shoulder, you notice.  
"Oh no," you hear Joy whisper. "Oh, that's not good."  
"I'm sorry, Y/N," Lisa says sympathetically.  
"I was stupid to unlock my phone at a party, I should've checked right away to make sure nothing was weird," you sniffle. 

After a few minutes of your friends trying to comfort you, you settle down, wiping at your eyes as you and Rosie join the others on the floor.

"Okay," Joy says, sweeping her hands across the floor like she's placing papers down. "Back to business. We need to adjust our plans now. First of all, Y/N, is this something you want to work to salvage?"  
"What does that even mean?" you ask, sighing at your friend who enjoys plotting way too much.  
"It means," Joy shakes her head like it should be obvious. "Would you rather ask Mrs. Park for a seat change before Jaehyun gets to class tomorrow, or actually try to play off, slash explain, this weekend and end up dating him?"  
"You say the second option like it means I'll definitely end up dating him," you say, shooting her an accusatory look.  
"Well you will definitely _not_ end up dating him if you get a seat change," Yeri offers, shrugging.  
"Thanks, Yeri."  
"Listen, this is important!" Joy exclaims. "Y/N, do you think you can work this out, or not?"  
You sigh. "I want to, but I don't see how I can. Clearly Jaehyun doesn't care that another guy kissed me by the way that he replied."  
"Wait, what?" Lisa asks in disbelief. "That's what you think?"  
"Y/N, you can't be serious," Rosie laughs.  
You send them confused looks, and Joy, who also has an amused expression on her face, takes the liberty of explaining.

"That response doesn't mean he doesn't care, you idiot," she chuckles. "He was clearly jealous and hoping you would admit that it was in fact stressful, so that he would know you didn't really want to kiss Taeyong. It was pretty obvious by the video that you were at a party playing spin the bottle."  
You furrow your brow. No way. The way he replied was too blasé to be Jaehyun acting jealous. Right?

"But why would Jaehyun be jealous? It's not like he really likes me, not like how I like him," you argue, not understanding how Joy could possibly be correct.  
"How do you know that?" Rose asks, running a hand through her hair.  
"Maybe because he's never acted like he does?"  
"Yeah, well, it's not like you're ever openly flirting with him either, so," your friend counters.  
"Listen, Y/N," Joy says, interrupting. "You need either snapchat him right now and say something like, 'sorry, got distracted!' and follow up with a 'yeah, pretty stressed lol got dragged into playing spin the bottle' or tomorrow you need to pretend nothing happened until he asks you about it and then do the same thing but in person."  
"I can't do either of those things," you say, knowing you sound a little whiny. "You know I hate confrontation!"  
"How is this confrontation?" Joy exclaims, reaching over and physically shaking you. "Either you do this or you can forget the idea of calling Jung Jaehyun your own!"  
"You're stressing me out," you announce, standing abruptly. "I'll figure it out by myself."  
"Look what you did," Rose says accusingly towards Joy.  
"What I did?" the girl rounds on Rose. "Come on!"  
"Hey, calm it down," Lisa interjects.  
"Bye," you say, grabbing your phone from Lisa's bed and quickly exiting, ignoring the harsh words being thrown between Joy and Rose that you know they will get over in about five minutes. 

 

Your manager isn't at work, so it's just you, Seungkwan, and your other coworker Hana. And when your manager isn't there, you finish everything you need to do within the first hour, and then sit by the checkout on your phones until someone walks in. Given that it's a Sunday night at seven thirty, nobody is really coming in. 

You're staring at the chat list on snapchat, chewing incessantly on the inside of your cheek as you try to decide what to do. Should you really just reply? Would it be that easy?

"Whatcha doing, Y/N?" Seungkwan asks, leaning over your shoulder. You hurriedly turn your phone off, even though nothing is weird about just being on the snapchat app.  
"Nothing," you say.  
"You look like something's weighing you down." Seungkwan comments.  
You sigh. "Just some teenage drama."  
"Want to talk about it?" Seungkwan is a year younger than you, and he is always eager to listen to your problems or suck up to you. You figure the kid has a little crush on you, but you feel bad ending his dreams, so you always roll with it.  
"Not really," you admit, smiling so as to lessen the blow. "Thanks, though."  
"I'm always here if you decide you want to!" Seungkwan pipes, then backwards walks away to the other end of the checkout, making you chuckle. 

You wish everything was as simple as other people made it out to be.

 

History is your fourth class of the day, the one you have right before you go to lunch. You wake up at six am dreading it.

You put a little more effort into your appearance today– wear a nicer coat than usual, put on some extra makeup. If you're going to have to talk to Jaehyun after the events of this weekend, it'll be easier knowing you look prettier than most days. Well, that's what you tell yourself as you lace up your vans.

You pick up Rosie and Lisa like always, and they give you raised eyebrows when you start talking about the math quiz you have instead of the elephant in the room. Well, elephant in the car. But you're not going to talk about that. Because you don't want to. Ha. 

Before you part ways with your friends to head to your respective first hours, Rose shoots you a concerned look.  
"Joy's gonna be really annoyed if something doesn't happen today, you know," she tells you. You sigh.  
"Yes. I'm aware."  
"Great!" pipes your friend. "I'm expecting some developments in fourth hour today, then."

Hopefully a meteor crashes into your school before then, setting everything on fire and allowing you a chance to escape and fool everyone into thinking you are dead, so that you never have to confront anybody or anything ever again in your life, instead just move to Iceland and become a hotel owner with a fake name and history, or some shit.

 

Your psych teacher puts on a Ted Talk for the whole hour, which you ignore and instead doze off until the kid next to you shakes you awake when the bell rings. You have essay practice in Spanish, which means you have to actually focus, but as soon as the class ends and you're on your way to physics, you realize that you only have one hour, give or take, until you see Jaehyun. And the meteor has still not arrived.

"Y/N!" you hear a somewhat familiar voice call from behind you as you walk down the hall. You turn over your shoulder to see Mark, that kid who was at Johnny's party, jogging slightly to catch up with you. "How's it goin'?" he asks casually once he's by your side.  
"Fine," you say cautiously. "Why do you ask?"  
Mark rubs the back of his neck nervously. "Well, uh, this was supposed to be kind of inconspicuous, but Taeyong asked me to get your number for him. But like, you don't have to if you don't want to– I can just tell him I couldn't find you!"  
"Taeyong?" you ask, although there's nothing you should really question about that. He did say flat out that he liked you.  
Mark nods.  
"Um, I guess," you say. "You know my friend Yeri, right?" he nods again, and you smile. Maybe you can get those two to finally talk. "I'll have her text you my number." You don't wait for Mark to say alright, or goodbye, as you slip into your physics classroom, the door swinging shut unceremoniously behind you. 

 

Hana, your coworker, has physics with you, and as she sits next to you, notices how you're bouncing your leg up and down nervously as soon as you take your seat. Once your teacher has explained the lesson and assigned the homework for tonight that you're to start working on now, Hana leans over, clearly annoyed.

"Can you please quit your little nervous tick thing? Sorry to be rude, but it's really distracting," she says, with absolutely no hesitance or sympathy.  
You offer a sorry smile. "I'll try."  
Hana rolls her eyes like that answer wasn't good enough.

You stare at the paper in front of you, trying to decipher what you're supposed to do with the numbers and your list of equations, but none of it is making sense, so you glance up at the clock, noticing that you only have ten minutes left of class. Now your hands are shaking too.  
You wish this wouldn't be such a stressful situation. If Joy was in your place, you know she'd just say the unfiltered truth to Jaehyun as soon as she saw him. But if it was Joy, she would've said she liked him months ago, anyway.  
You've never in your life confessed that you like someone. You had one boy in third grade tell you he liked you (to which you just said thank you) and a boyfriend sophomore year that became your boyfriend because Johnny got you two together. (You two also broke up because of Johnny, but he still denies that.)  
Not like you think today will end up as an opportunity to confess to Jaehyun anyway. 

The clock ticks faster than it ever does when you're waiting and praying for class to end like most days. Before you know it, the bell is ringing, and your feet are immediately out the door and on the way to history before your mind can catch up. Muscle memory. Love it.

Usually you get to fourth hour before Jaehyun, since it's pretty close to physics, but today you head into the nearest girls' bathroom, occupying yourself with touching up your makeup and spending way more time than necessary fiddling with various things until the minute bell finally rings and you decide to head out. If you can get to class moments before you'd be marked late, your teacher will start, and there won't be any time for you to engage in conversation with Jaehyun. 

You walk into history avoiding eye contact with Rosie who sits by the door, and then with Jaehyun as he looks up at you with a smile on his face. You slide into your seat, and just as he opens his mouth to say something, the tardy bell rings and not even a second after it ends, Mrs. Park announces that today she will be lecturing on the topic of South Asia, as everyone will be beginning another partner project tomorrow. For a moment, you mentally cheer, because if she's lecturing that means there will be no empty spaces for Jaehyun to lean over and talk to you. But if there's a partner project being assigned, does that means it'll be with your desk partners like last time?

A couple times throughout the class when Mrs. Park pauses to allow time for everyone to finish taking notes, you feel Jaehyun nudge you like he wants to say something, but you just pretend like you don't feel his elbow against yours. 

When there's a minute of class left, Mrs. Park ends her lecture with the note that yes, your partners for the project would be your deskmates, to which many people groan. 

"Hey, dreamteam will be back at it!" you hear Jaehyun say to your right, and finally look over at him for the first time this whole hour. He's smiling brightly, his handsome features accentuated by the excited look on his face.  
"Right," you say, trying to smile back, although you know it came out too grim to be convincing. You lean down to your other side to put away your binder and pens, but not before catching Jaehyun's expression fall ever so slightly.  
A few seconds of silence pass where you figure he must just be getting his stuff in order too.

"Is something wrong, Y/N?" 

You look up, having just finished zipping up your backpack. Jaehyun's expression is cloudy– you can't tell where that question is coming from, and his tone doesn't give anything away either.

"I'm sorry?" you say, raising your brows. Jaehyun takes his lower lip between his teeth momentarily before sighing, looking back at the board instead of at you.  
"I just feel like something is weird," he says vaguely, shrugging. "You never–"

He's cut off by the bell ringing loudly, and his head snaps over to the left in a slight panic. You're already up, bag slung over your shoulder and you send him a sympathetic smile.

"Sorry, Jaehyun, I gotta go, but I'll text you later about the project?" People are pouring out of the classroom, and you fear you'll be left here alone with just Mrs. Park and Jaehyun.  
He stands, mirroring you, a confused expression on his handsome face. "The project?"  
You nod, shoot him another smile. "See you tomorrow!" you say, like that whole conversation wasn't obviously weird, then practically bolt out of the room. 

Rosie's waiting for you a few feet down the hall, and wordlessly, you lock your arm around hers and speed out the doors and down the main stairs. Once you've made it to your lunch squad's usual table, you slow down, bringing a hand up to your face in shame.

"What happened?" Rose asks worriedly, pressing her hands on your shoulders.  
"I am embarassed." you state.  
Yeri, who's sitting on the other side of the table, looks up from her phone. "Why?" she asks, mouth full with granola bar.  
"Because," you say, sliding into your seat, Rose doing the same next to you as you toss your bag on the table. "Jaehyun."  
"Did you talk to him?" Yeri tilts her head.  
"He literally asked me if something is wrong," you groan, setting your head in your arms. "He said he feels like something is weird, and then I think he was going to elaborate, but the bell rung and I got the hell outta there,"  
"Why didn't you stick around?" Rose pushes you lightly, causing you to lift your head to frown at her.  
"Because," you whine. "It's Jaehyun. I can't just– I can't, okay? I really like him and things are practically ruined forever!"  
"You are being so dramatic about this," Yeri snaps. "If you just manned up and weren't so awkward this wouldn't be such an issue."  
"What's an issue?" Lisa sits down next to Yeri, placing her chin in her hand thoughtfully.  
"Y/N," Yeri replies instantly.  
"Shutup," you shake your head. "You'll understand when you're older."

"Hey, child," you turn your head to see Johnny, sporting a bright smile and holding two Starbucks cups.  
"Hey Johnny," you reply, taking one of them. "Thanks."  
"No problem," he shrugs, then squeezes in between you and Rose. "You guys look like you're arguing."  
"Y/N is having major relationship problems," Yeri explains casually, taking a bite out of her granola bar.  
Johnny raises his brows. "Since when are you in a relationship?" he directs to you.  
"I'm not," you say bitterly.  
"Not yet!" Lisa chimes in.  
"Not ever, seemingly," you retort, not appreciating the positivity.  
"Well, if whatever you're talking about doesn't work out, you can always hook up with Taeyong," Johnny offers, slinging an arm over your shoulders. "He did say he thinks you're pretty."  
"Taeyong from the party?" Rose interjects.  
"Yep," Johnny pipes. "That Taeyong."  
"As long as he doesn't mind being a backup plan," you mutter, sighing. Not like you have any interest in Taeyong. You basically said Mark could give him your number for that exact reason– in case Jaehyun flat out rejects you and you end up needing some kind of rebound. 

"Well, I'm outta here," Johnny says, swinging his legs back over the bench. "This place is a nightmare. Glad to be rid of high school."  
"You loved high school more than everyone in your class combined," you say, an accusatory tone lacing your voice. Johnny shrugs.  
"Times do change, Y/N. See you!" 

 

The end of the day rolls around, and you head to the library as you usually do after school on Mondays to study with Rose. 

You sit at the table you two always sit at, taking out your notes from the various classes you both take, and then your phone to waste time on while you wait for your friend to arrive. 

You open snapchat first instinctively, opening a message from Joy with a disapproving selfie, the caption reading:

_I heard you ignored Jaehyun!!!! Figure it out!!!!_

You don't reply to that one.

Seungkwan sent you a selfie with his fist in the air, the caption reading ' _fighting at school today, Y/N!_ '  
He's too cute.

Just then, a text message banner slides onto the top of your screen, and you tap it reflexively, waiting for it to load.

_Hey, it's Taeyong :) Just wanted to make sure you're feeling better after Saturday night_

You wince. You don't want to lead him on or anything. Do you reply? Do you not?

"Y/N?"  
Oh shit.

You look up to see Jaehyun separating from his group of friends, some of them saying quick goodbyes as he makes his way over to you, a blank look on his face.

"Hey Jaehyun," you say as casually as you can muster, setting your phone on the table so you don't seem rude.  
Jaehyun smiles, but it's small and nowhere near as bright as his smiles usually are. His eyes don't crinkle up, his cheeks don't lift high enough, it doesn't look like sunshine is embodied in his face. Okay, maybe that's dramatic, but you always feel like he's the human form of sunshine when he smiles at you.

"Waiting for someone?" he asks, gesturing to the empty seat across from you, before sitting down in it.  
"Just Rose," you say, shrugging lightly. "We study after school on Mondays in here."  
"Nice," Jaehyun says, nodding. His eyes flit downwards and then back up quickly, but you already saw that he was looking at your phone screen. "...Who's Taeyong?"  
Coincedentally, your phone automatically shuts off just then.  
"Um," you start, looking around briefly to check if Rose is in sight so she can rescue you, but you don't see her. "A friend of a friend."  
"Is he that guy you kissed?"  
You're taken aback– you look up at Jaehyun with wide eyes, expecting some sort of joking smile to crack on his face at any second, since he does like to tease you, but instead, he just retains that vague expression.  
"Yeah," you manage to say, voice coming out weaker than you wanted it to. "That's him."  
Jaehyun nods, looking away. "That's cool," he says, and you wince internally. This is not going well.  
"We were playing spin the bottle, though," you blurt out, and almost immediately regret it as Jaehyun meets your eyes, tilting his head. "So like, I only kissed him because of that."  
"Oh," he says, and you wait for him to elaborate, but he doesn't.  
"What were you... what were you going to say earlier? Before I had to go, at the end of class?" you ask, figuring this is your chance to make Joy proud and have a conversation with Jaehyun.  
He opens his mouth, then closes it, looking between you and at the table, before he finally ends up talking. "It was nothing important."  
You wait a moment, biting your lip. "You sure?"  
"Yeah," says Jaehyun, offering you one of those not really smiles as he stands. "Hey, Rose," he adds, and you turn to see your friend approaching with a wary smile.  
"Hi," she says, taking the seat he'd just left empty.  
"Let's meet here tomorrow after school," Jaehyun says, looking at you. "For the project."  
"Sure," you say, mustering up a smile you hope doesn't look forced.  
"Bye," he lifts up a hand and waves, before turning on his heel and walking away.

Rosie looks at you like she wants to know that entire conversation went, but you just shake your head, opening up your english textbook instead.


	5. possibility of improvement

You ignore your phone for the rest of today, and refuse to talk about Jaehyun at all with Rosie and Yeri when you pick them up for school the next morning. 

The day goes by at a normal speed– Jaehyun isn't there, though, when fourth hour comes around. He doesn't show up the entire class period, and when Mrs. Park asks you if you know where he is, you have nothing to say but "Maybe he's sick?".

"Well," your teacher says, eyebrows lifting. "I suggest you get in contact with him, and let him know that if he isn't back by Thursday, he'll have an alternate assignment and I'll have you join another pair." You nod in response, but honestly, that doesn't sound so bad to you. You could just not let Jaehyun know and then for sure be met with that change of plans. 

But that'd be kind of rude.

hey jaehyun, park said if youre not back by thursday she'll have an alternate assignment for you instead of the project. just wanted to let you know

You reread the text about a thousand times, deciding it sounds fine, but you don't send it. You'll find out from one of his friends why he's gone today first.

 

You're definitely not friends with Jungkook, or Mingyu, or Yugyeom, but here you are, using you lunch time to talk to them. You slide into the seat across from them, ignoring how they seem confused by you being there. 

"Hi," you greet, with a friendly smile.  
"Hi...?" Yugyeom replies. He looks over at his other friends like they should know why you'fe here, even if he doesn't.  
"You guys are Jaehyun's friends, right?" you ask, resting your chin on your hand. The boys nod. "Do you know why he's not at school? He seemed okay yesterday."  
Jungkook and Yugyeom make eye contact, hesitating to answer your question, and you internally frown– why did that seem suspicious?   
"He's just not feeling well today," Mingyu says, offering you a smile that says 'this conversation should end right now'.   
You wait a moment to see if either of the other two will elaborate, but they don't. "Alright, thanks!" you say, standing up. "See ya,"   
"Bye," Jungkook says, waving a little as you walk away. 

 

_hey jaehyun, park said if youre not back by thursday she'll have an alternate assignment for you instead of the project. just wanted to let you know_

_hope you feel better! sorry you got sick :/_

You send the texts towards the end of lunch, running a hand through your hair. What if he thinks its weird that you asked his friends where he is? Would it just have been better to ask him?

You sigh to yourself, shutting your phone off as the bell rings. Yeri, Lisa, and Rosie wave goodbye while the four of you head to your respective buildings, and you try not to think about Jung Jaehyun and your unfortunate messages.

 

"What a day," Yeri sighs as she climbs into your car. Rose nods in agreement, and you frown, looking over at her in the passenger seat.   
"Why?"   
Another sigh. "Geometry teacher gave us a pop quiz, and I definitely failed."  
"Why for you, Rosie?"  
The girl shrugs, a little smile on her face. "My day was fine, actually, but I was just trying to be supportive by agreeing."  
You laugh at that. "See if you can get some extra credit," you say to Yeri, hoping the advice of a senior can make her feel better.  
"I would, but Mr. Lithford doesn't really do extra credit, so–"

She stops at the blaring sound of your ringtone coming out of the speakers in the car. You scramble for your phone in your bag, wondering who could be calling you right after school gets out. Mom? Your manager?

Jung Jaehyun, apparently.

"Guys, shut the fuck up, it's Jaehyun, he's calling," you snap, even though both of your friends are quiet.  
"Turn it off bluetooth!" Yeri shoots back.  
"I can't!" you say, knowing once a call has come through, you can't change the setting on your phone.  
"Don't answer, then," Rose offers.  
"I have to, it's Jaehyun," you retort. "Just be quiet, he can't know you guys are listening."

You swipe accept on the call.

"Hey Jaehyun!" you say, trying to sound cheerier than you are. "What's up?"  
"Uh, I got your text," he says, and you immediately note that he does not sound sick. "I'll be back tomorrow, I just felt kind of sick today, but it's going away for sure."  
"Yeah, I get that," you say, nodding though he can't see you. "I have work right after school tomorrow, though, so I can't really meet up for the project."  
"That's okay," Jaehyun says. "I can't on Thursday, though. I have basketball. Is Friday okay?"  
Friday... you're pretty sure Johnny wants you to come over Friday. But you can cancel on him, right?  
"Yeah, Friday works. Right after school?"  
"Sure," says Jaehyun, and he lets out a breath that almost sounds shaky, like he's nervous. "Sorry for not being there today. And also for being... I don't know, I was kind of weird yesterday in the library, huh?" he chuckles, but that too sounds shaky.   
"No, no, it's okay," you assure him. "And you weren't weird, well like, not weirder than me, at least," you laugh under your breath, even though in your head you're telling yourself to shutup because you can see Yeri barely keeping it together next to you.   
"You're not weird, Y/N," Jaehyun says, and you can practically hear the smile in his voice. "See you tomorrow, okay?"  
"Yeah, see you," you reply, left foot tapping anxiously.  
"Bye," he says, but doesn't hang up.  
"Bye," you say back, but can't find it in you to hang up either.  
"Okay, bye for real," Jaehyun laughs, an actual laugh, and your heart twinges a little bit at how much you've missed the sound, even though you totally had a laugh together in class last Friday. Four days is too long, basically.  
"Alright, bye," you can't keep the smile off your face. Jaehyun mumbles another laugh-y bye before the call finally ends.

Yeri bursts into laughter, and you hear Rosie's quiet giggles in the back as well. You sigh, pulling out of your parking spot, almost thankful for the call as most of the cars are gone by now.

"Oh my god," Yeri says, still dying laughing. "That was like, a perfect description of awkward-cute!"  
"Cute?" you exclaims, looking over at her with wide eyes. "How in God's name was that cute? I felt like a dumbass!"  
"You guys wouldn't hang up!" Rose practically squeals. "Y/N, come on, that was really cute!"  
"No way," you roll your eyes. "Cute is the wrong adjective."  
"Whatever you say, Y/N," Yeri sighs, a big smile on her face. "Whatever you say."

 

The next day, you come to class at your usual time, and greet Jaehyun with a hi, JJH. And he smiles one of those big, gorgeous smiles and shoots back a, Mornin', sunshine!   
You feel better. 

Joy visits you at work later. It's one of those probably too frequent days where your manager isn't there, and so you and coworkers are, as usual, doing pretty much nothing.

Hana gives Joy a really dirty look when she walks in, but your friend couldn't care less about Hana's opinion, and walks straight towards you, sliding behind the checkout counter and sitting on the chair right by yours. (Chairs that shouldn't even be there, you should clarify.)

"I heard you had a cute conversation with Jaehyun on the phone yesterday," she says, smiling brightly.  
"Wow," you say, raising your brows. "No, 'hi, Y/N! How's work? I hope your day is going well so far!'?"   
Joy gives you an 'are you serious' look. "I'm getting to what's important." she states, sighing all too dramatically. "So did you?"  
"It wasn't cute, I can tell you that," you roll your eyes, knowing for sure that Yeri is the one who told your older friend.   
"Whatever," Joy shakes her head. "The biggest part of that phone call is that you're meeting with him on Friday."  
"Yep."  
"So that means Friday is your opportunity to clear the water, and tell him it was a mistake kissing Taeyong, and that you have no interest in him."  
You bite your lip. "But Joy–"  
"No excuses!" she cuts you off. "Y/N, I know you really like him! You just need to go for it, okay?"  
"No, listen," you say, already starting to feel anxious. "I already told him that."

Her jaw drops. "When?"  
You sigh, looking away. "I saw him at the library on Monday. We kinda talked, and he asked me who Taeyong is since he had just texted me, and I hesitated and somehow he guessed that it was the guy I kissed, and basically I spilled about how it was for spin the bottle." you chew on the inside of your cheek, hating the way thinking about Jaehyun's reaction makes you feel. "And he didn't care. At all."

Joy's face is somber, sympathetic. "How do you know?" she asks quietly. "That he didn't care."  
You shrug. "He just... All he said was oh. Literally just: oh."  
"Oh," says Joy, almost comically replicating your dejected tone. "Well–" she starts, but cuts herself off, seemingly having a mental conversation with herself. After a few seconds, she refocuses on you. "Well, maybe he was just surprised, but didn't want to show it. You still have a chance, okay?"  
"No, I don't," you snap, suddenly aggravated. You don't want to hear another maybe, you don't want chances, you either want Jaehyun to tell you he likes you back or for him to tell you he doesn't. You don't want to keep guessing, you don't want to calculate how you should act around him or what you should say. You want to know if you should text Taeyong back, you want to know if you should start forcing yourself not to giggle to yourself when you think of Jaehyun's smile, you want to know if you need to get used to the idea of him being with someone else. You don't want to deal with this anymore.

"I'm not going to think about it that way anymore, okay?" you sigh, brushing through your hair with your hand. "It's too much. It's gotten to be too much."

"Okay," says Joy, nodding, still with that sympathetic look. "I'm sorry if I came off too strong. I just want you to be happy."  
"I know," you reply, offering her a little smile. "Thanks."  
"Of course," she says, reaching over and ruffling your hair. "Good luck with everything. Let me know if anything big happens, Jaehyun involved or not!"  
You chuckle. "Bye, Joy,"  
She wiggles her fingers as she gets up and leaves.

Hana gives you a dirty look. "Keep your relationship issues out of the store."  
You roll your eyes.  
Whatever Hana says, you have to figure this all out somehow.  
And soon.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> pre-written before i went on vacation, just posting now :)


	6. perfect.

Friday rolls around quicker than you expect it to, and while in class, you and Jaehyun decide it'd be better to work on the project at one of your houses rather than the library, so you can have access to lots of art supplies for the poster you're supposed to make. Jaehyun has a club meeting after school, and you have to drop your sister off at cheer practice at four, so you decide to meet at his place at around five.   
He warns you his mom will be home, and that she's a little bit overbearing, but you are basically a mom charmer (all your friends' moms love you), so you just laugh that off. 

 

Naeun jumps out of the car before you even come to a complete stop, shouting obscenities at you about being late that your mother would basically pass out hearing come from her younger child's mouth. You do feel bad that you had gotten your sister to practice nearly half an hour after it started, but Joy (and the other girls in the background) had called you and insisted you relay everything that happened at Jaehyun's house to her via text every ten minutes. You'd had to argue to get to the ten minute mark for a while, because she wanted five minutes plus a call every half hour. And so you'd ended up leaving the house late.

And now it's four thirty, and you need to be on your way to Jaehyun's, since he lives across town. 

Your ringtone goes off throughout the speakers of the car as you make a U-turn and leave the cheer building's parking lot, and you absentmindedly tap the answer button without looking to see who it is.

"Y/N!" Johnny sing-songs through the receiver. "My lovely child!"  
"Excuse me?" you raise a brow, briefly looking at your phone to make sure it's actually Johnny, and then to put Jaehyun's address in maps. Yeah, you've lived around here your whole life, but you still don't really know the streets and how to get to specific places without help.  
"I'm calling because you told me you'd come to the party tonight," Johnny says, carrying a lilting tone in his voice.  
"I definitely didn't say that I was coming to a party," you shake your head, chuckling. "You literally just told me you wanted to hang out tonight. No mention of a party."  
Johnny' quiet for a moment. "...Okay. But you're still coming over!" he pipes, obviously trying to breeze over your brazen response.  
"I can't, actually. I have to work on a project." you turn left at Siri's suggestion, the route time reading that it was only a five minute drive. So you would end up getting there early. Hopefully not before Jaehyun himself.  
"A project? What? Why would you do that instead of hanging out with me?" Johnny says disbelievingly. You can practically see the shocked expression on his face.  
"Because it's due on Monday, and my partner and I still have a lot of work to do."   
Johnny seems to consider this briefly, but his next words make you groan out load. "Okay, but how about this: Taeyong is going to be at the party! Huh? Amazing, right?"

"That doesn't do much to convince me, Johnny." you reply honestly. Taeyong is handsome and all, but you still haven't replied to his text, and unless Jaehyun flat out rejects you in some way today, you don't really have a desire to see him.   
"Well, I told him you'd be here and that's why he's coming, so you should really come." Johnny starts to sound desperate. "Come on, Y/N! Just half ass the project in like two hours and then come over! I'll let you sleep in my bed again!"  
"I'm not sleeping over at your house anymore," you roll your eyes, taking a right turn into Jaehyun's (supposed) neighborhood. "I'll let you know, okay?"  
"Fine," Johnny says, sounding dejected. "Ttyl."  
"Ttyl." you reply, and he hangs up.

 

You ring Jaehyun's doorbell at four forty-five, and are really hoping that he's home. He did say his meeting was after school, and usually they're not too much longer than an hour or two by your experience, so he should be...  
You're just nervous that you'll be alone in his house. When you've literally never been in it before.

The door swings open to reveal a tall, lithe woman with short dark hair and kind, lifted eyes that resemble Jaehyun's. She smiles and they curve up just like his do.

"You must be Y/N! Come on in, sweetheart, Jae told me you'd be coming by tonight!" she ushers you into the house, and you take your shoes off quickly before smiling back and following her into what you assume is the kitchen. "I'm Jae's mom, call me Younghee."  
"L/N F/N," you say, smiling kindly at her as she sits you down at the kitchen table, scurrying around the kitchen. You take a look around as she talks.  
"I'll grab you some water, dear– you know, Jae's said a lot about you, he always talks about how he'd be failing history if it weren't for your help!" Younghee shoots you a grateful smile as she sets a glass of water down in front of you and takes the seat to your left.   
"Oh?" you ask, cocking your head. You didn't think you did too much tutoring regarding Jaehyun in history.  
"Yes!" Younghee pipes. "He told me you really help him focus, and that he was really glad your teacher never changed your seats so that he could sit next to you. Why, I'm not surprised, considering how lovely you are!"  
Your eyes widen, awkwardly chuckling at the comment. "Oh, thanks," you say, taking a sip of the water.   
"He's upstairs showering right now, by the way. He was hoping you'd be a bit late rather than early, but I'm glad you're ahead of the clock! It's a good trait, I think." she reaches over and pats your head affectionately, and you smile again, moreso just to seem polite. Yeah, you can see how Jaehyun would call his mom 'overbearing'. It's not bothering you too much, though.  
"It's no problem, I don't mind waiting," you say, glancing around at the kitchen area. 

It's connected to the living room, the only separation the split between tile and wooden floors. The walls are painted a calm yellow, and there's dozens of pictures of Jaehyun hung on them. The decoration around the space was crowded, mostly unorganized, and you figure that's because of Younghee's clear scatter-brained tendencies, but it looks like a home, lived in, and you find that you like it a lot. 

"Mom?"

You and Younghee both look behind you, only to see Jaehyun standing at the top of the stairs, wearing nothing but a towel wrapped around his hips. He lets out a surprised yelp when he catches your eye and hops around the edge of the staircase so as to hide himself. You snap back to the cup of water in front of you, knowing a furious blush must be spreading across your cheeks– that body, that wet hair... God, was he gorgeous–

"Yes?" Younghee replies calmly, as though both you and her son hadn't just gone through massive embarassment.  
Jaehyun's voice comes out meeker than you've heard. "I was gonna ask if you wanted to get Y/N some tea ready, but, uh, I guess she's here, so... I'm just going to get changed now."

You hear quick and loud footsteps, and you guess that Jaehyun has scurried off to put on some actual clothes. Damn. Well, only kind of damn, because while you'd love to ogle his figure, you'd never get anything done that way.

"Do you like tea, sweetheart?" Younghee asks, placing her hand over yours that are wrapped around the water glass. "I can fix you some now, if you'd like?"  
"Oh, no, water's fine," you say, smiling and nodding, hoping the heat in your cheeks has died down. Younghee looks about to reply when a loud ding goes off from your pocket. You bite your lip, looking down at it.  
"Go ahead, dear, I don't mind if you text at the table," Younghee assures you, patting your hand before lifting it off. You nod, pulling your phone out and unlocking it to see a message in the groupchat.

_Updates??? Are you there yet???_

You sigh. Joy. Of course.

_yes i am and nothings really happened, just hanging with jaehyuns mom_

You choose to omit that you've seen him half naked fresh out of the shower. You'll keep that little detail to yourself. 

_Okay. Remember, ten minutes._

Yes, you'd remember. You roll your eyes and pocket your phone, only to hear those same loud footsteps forming a rhythm behind you. You turn over your shoulder and find Jaehyun, dressed in a red hoodie, ripped jeans, and the same wet hair taking the last step of the stairs, and then casually strolling towards you and his mom.   
He shoots you a somewhat bashful smile, running his hand through his hair to push it away from his face. Yeah, you nearly pass out on the spot from that visual, but manage to contain yourself and just smile back.

"I see why you like Y/N so much, son! She's really such a doll," Younghee chirps as she stands from her place at the table. You do the same, watching Jaehyun's reaction to his mom's words.   
He chuckles, tongue running over his lip as he looks at the ground. "Ah, yeah, she's cool."   
You don't say anything, just interlock your fingers in front of you, swaying gently from side to side as you wait for Jaehyun to offer a place to go to work on the project.  
"So," Younghee says. "You two can stay in here, or there's the upstairs sitting room, or your room if you keep the door open, Jae. I promise mom won't bother you too much!" she reaches over and ruffles Jaehyun's hair, and he shrinks away.  
"Mom," he whines, and you giggle to yourself. "Where to?" he asks, turning towards you.  
You shrug. "Your house, you decide, I guess."  
Jaehyun seems to think on it, before nodding to himself. "All my school stuff is in my room, if you don't mind being up there."

Well, you highkey do mind, because holy shit you're going into your crush's room and that's a huge thing to be doing your first time in his house. But he seems cool with it. So you will pretend to be as well. 

"Sure," you say, shrugging again.  
"Great," says Jaehyun, then extends his arm and grins. "Right this way."

 

Jaehyun's room is... pretty much exactly what you'd expect from an eighteen year old boy. Kinda messy, although you imagine he'd tried to clean up in case you did come in here. Basketball trophies lined up on a bookshelf that had no books on it, various other sports awards and ribbons strewn along the walls and his dresser. His backpack is atop the bed, which is made, and all the notes he must have taken during class the past few days are lying on the rug by it. 

"You can put your stuff down anywhere," Jaehyun says, and you realize you've sort of just been standing there, looking around, without actually saying anything.   
"Right," you say, a nervous smile on your face as you drop your backpack on the ground and settle down next to it. Jaehyun raises his brows as he sits on the bed, reaching into his bag.  
"You can sit on the chair, you know," he chuckles as he points to the desk and rolling chair on the other side of the room, but you just shrug.  
"Well, the poster will only fit on the floor, so."  
"Oh, right!" Jaehyun stands, reaching over behind his bed to pull out one of those tri-folding carboard posters that fifth graders use for science fairs. "How's this for the poster?"  
You chuckle. "It's perfect."  
He sends you a cheeky thumbs up, and then settles down beside you on the floor, organizing the space to make room for everything. "So, I was thinking that we could put the title here, and then the rubric says to have at least five sources cited somewhere on the poster, so we should put that at the bottom..."

Jaehyun talks, but all you can think about is how you don't mind this. Just being here with him, despite it only being as partners for a project. It's okay if he never asks you out– because it's Jaehyun, and as long as you can see him once in a while, talk and laugh and study together, everything's good.

"Y/N?"

You snap your eyes up at the sound of your name. "Hm?"  
Jaehyun breaks into a smile as he catches your gaze. "Were you zoning out?"  
You let out a bashful laugh, brushing a strand of hair out of your face as you look back down at the poster and all your work. "Yeah, sorry. So I'll start the title part?"

 

You haven't really been faithful to your promise of updating the girls every ten minutes. It's been two and a half hours, and you've texted Joy three times total, all of which said something along the lines of, everythings normal. dw. And nothing else. 

You and Jaehyun are nearly done with the project. Realistically, you could have finished an hour ago, if you'd been efficient with your time, but you'd gotten off track multiple times. Once, he made a reference to Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure, and seeing as that was your favorite 80's movie, you had to discuss the intricacies of it for at least twenty minutes. Then, his mom had asked if you were hungry, and although you said no, she brought you a plate of snacks and insisted that you come downstairs and eat them. You explained your entire college plan to her as small talk. That took a while, too. 

But here you are now, flipping the poster over as Jaehyun digs in his art supply box from ten years ago (or so he says) for some sharpies to sign your names and hour on the back as your teacher requested.

"Got one! Do you think red will show up?" Jaehyun asks, turning over his shoulder, holding up a miniature sized red sharpie. You laugh.  
"How can you be a senior in high school and only have a mini red sharpie?"   
Jaehyun rolls his eyes. "That wasn't a good answer to my question. Honestly, do you think it'll show up? Because if not, I gotta go downstairs and look in my dad's office–"

And there goes your ringtone, blaring out loud as usual, because you never turn off the ringer on your phone. For some reason.

You scramble to grab your phone which you'd thrown on Jaehyun's bed at some point, looking at him to make sure it was okay to answer before you did so. He shrugged with a half smile, so you swiped to answer the call, not really looking at the id. It had to be either Joy or your mom, anyway.

"Y/N? Are you there?"

Oh. Great.

"Taeyong?" you ask, sitting down on the floor and avoiding Jaehyun's eyes. You felt his gaze snap onto you as soon as you said the name out loud, and it burns while the person in question talks.  
"Yeah, it's me," Taeyong says, a smile evident in his voice. "Johnny said you might be coming tonight. I was wondering if you'd be over soon, since it's like... seven thirty-ish."  
You tongue the inside of your cheek. "Um... I mean, I would, but I'm kind of busy right now..."  
"Ah, shame," Taeyong chuckles, and you can picutr him shrugging. "I was hoping I'd see you again?"

You know the question isn't just in reference to tonight. He's asking if you want to go out with him, in general. If sometime soon, you want to go on a date. 

You almost look up to find Jaehyun, like you need to ask his permission. But he's not your anything, he's just a friend, and he's already made it clear that he doesn't care whether you do or don't have an interest in Taeyong.

"Uh, yeah," you say, fingers tapping. "I'll let you know when I'm free."

The words feel wrong as you say them.

"Great!" Taeyong says, his voice much brighter than when he'd been asking. "Talk to you soon, then?"  
"Yeah," you reply.   
"Bye," says Taeyong.  
"Bye," you say, and hit end call. 

You bite your lip as you set your phone down, and finally look at Jaehyun, extending your hand.

"Sorry about that. I'm sure red will show up fine."  
He stares at you, expression unreadable, before he runs his tongue over his lower lip and speaks. "Are you going out with that guy? Taeyong?"  
You're surprised, and you're sure your face must show it. "...He's not my boyfriend, if that's what you're asking," you say cautiously, sitting back on your heels and dropping your arm.   
"But are you going to go out with him? Like, on a date?"

You brush your hair behind your ear, eyes flicking between the poster and just to the left of Jaehyun, not really wanting to look directly at him. You don't know why, but his tone makes you feel like you're answering wrong if you say yes.

"I mean... yeah, probably."

You catch Jaehyun's eye by accident just then, and his whole form seems to constrict, tighten, like that response was stressful or something. He stares at you, brows drawing ever so slightly together, before a single word escapes his lips.

"Don't."

Your eyes widen, your own body tensing as you look at him. Your mouth drops slightly open, gears in your head turning as you try to make sense of what he's just said.

"What do you mean, 'don't'?" you ask, your voice weak. Jaehyun looks down, breaking the blistering eye contact between you two.  
"I mean, don't go out with him."  
"Why not?" you ask before you can keep the words from slipping out.  
Jaehyun sighs, a subtle annoyance spreading across his features. "Isn't it obvious, Y/N?" you don't reply, and he looks up again, eyes meeting yours. "I like you. I liked you back in freshman year when we sat at the same table in math, and I thought it went away since we never talked after that, but then we had the project at the beginning of this year, and..." he trails off, looking down once again and shaking his head. "I'm sorry. Obviously you kissed that guy and– it's stupid, I'm sorry."

He's sitting there in front of you, avoiding your eyes, avoiding your presence, and you have no words.

You've liked Jung Jaehyun for ages, and he likes you too.

"Jaehyun," you start, a smile spreading across your face. You're itching with excitement.  
"No, don't say it's okay," he says, shaking his head violently. "I know I just ruined our friendship, you don't have to pretend or anything,"  
"Jaehyun, don't be an idiot," you say, a big, bright smile now taking up your whole expression. His head snaps up, a frown lacing his features as he takes in your smile.  
"What–" he begins, but all you can do is cut him off.  
"Clearly I like you too," you say, a laugh bubbling up from your chest. You know your face must be red, but you don't care. "I told you, I only kissed Taeyong because we were playing spin the bottle and I didn't want everyone to make fun of me for not doing it."

Jaehyun looks appalled. Shocked. Shook, you might even say.

"What?" he asks, eyes wide. "But then– why did you agree to go out with him?"  
You laugh again, hands pressing to your hot cheeks. "Because it seemed like you didn't care that day in the library! Ah, how stupid have I been! I can't believe this!"  
"Wait, so you're saying– so you're saying this is a mutual thing?" Jaehyun asks, and you can see the way his face begins to light up as you nod quickly. "You also like me?"  
"Yes!" you exclaim, laughing still. You feel bright, you feel warm.  
"Yes!" Jaehyun exclaims back, hopping onto his feet and striding over to you before pulling you up by the hands, lacing his fingers with yours. "This isn't a dream, right?" he asks, that gorgeous, sunshine smile that you adore so much across his face. You shake your head, although it feels like one to you, too.   
"No dream," you say, reaching up with one hand and pinching his cheek. Jaehyun laughs, his bubbly, sweet, contagious laugh.   
"Perfect," he says, lifting the hand that you let go of and brushing your hair back out of your face. "Is it weird if I kiss you right now?"  
You giggle, shaking your head, and Jaehyun laughs again, under his breath as he rests his forehead against yours. "You're not weird, Jung Jaehyun." you say, looping your free arm around his neck to draw him closer.  
"Perfect," he repeats, and his lips are on yours.

 

_Y/N! It's been an hour!!! Updates????_

_everything is good. make sure to thank johnny for his drunk rants for me_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ayyy its over
> 
> this was my first time writing something lighthearted and i think it turned out well! i hope so, lol
> 
> i hope everyone who read enjoyed! ty


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